


living creatures, according to their kinds

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Animals, Backstory, Calormen, Cats, Gen, Loneliness, No Plot/Plotless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-05
Updated: 2013-06-05
Packaged: 2018-02-09 11:58:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1982154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wherein Shasta wants a cat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	living creatures, according to their kinds

**Author's Note:**

> This is an exploratory fragment written longhand at work in March of 2010. It never developed a plot.

Shasta had no pets growing up. This was more a consequence of Arsheesh's temperament than of his poverty. Many other fishing families kept a dog or two to guard their chickens and vegetable plots, as well as to warn off intruders. And several intermingled clans of semi-tamed cats traded their skills as vermin hunters for an occasional scrap and the right to raise kittens in various sheds.

Arsheesh, however, disliked the company of beasts as much as the company of his fellow humans. His chickens spent their lives locked in their coop. His vegetables were guarded by nothing more than a line of stones and shells. If mice crept into his hut, he set poisoned bread to kill them, and if cats bred on his property he drowned the kittens himself.

Shasta had no feelings for mice -- they were a nuisance and would be killed one way or another. Chickens were equally unappealing, though he took pity on the pitiful flock now and then and let them into the yard one at a time while Arsheesh was busy at sea. He was slightly nervous around dogs and had no interest in giving up half his meals to feed another mouth.

But cats could and did feed themselves, and would sometimes deign to drape themselves on his lap as he mended nets. He liked their warm weight, their serpentine grace, their quiet, rumbling purrs.

Shasta wanted a cat to make its home with him instead of simply visiting while Arsheesh was away.


End file.
